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1. Adsorptive exchange of coccolith biominerals facilitates viral infection

   https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adc8728  

   Johns, Christopher T.; Bondoc-Naumovitz, Karen Grace; Matthews, Alexandra; Matson, Paul G.; Iglesias-Rodriguez, M. Debora; Taylor, Alison R.; Fuchs, Heidi L.; Bidle, Kay D. (January 2023, Science Advances)

   n/a (Ed.)

   Marine coccolithophores are globally distributed, unicellular phytoplankton that produce nanopatterned, calcite biominerals (coccoliths). These biominerals are synthesized internally, deposited into an extracellular coccosphere, and routinely released into the external medium, where they profoundly affect the global carbon cycle. The cellular costs and benefits of calcification remain unresolved. Here, we show observational and experimental evidence, supported by biophysical modeling, that free coccoliths are highly adsorptive biominerals that readily interact with cells to form chimeric coccospheres and with viruses to form “viroliths,” which facilitate infection. Adsorption to cells is mediated by organic matter associated with the coccolith base plate and varies with biomineral morphology. Biomineral hitchhiking increases host-virus encounters by nearly an order of magnitude and can be the dominant mode of infection under stormy conditions, fundamentally altering how we view biomineral-cell-virus interactions in the environment. 

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2. The Possession of Coccoliths Fails to Deter Microzooplankton Grazers

   https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.569896  

   Mayers, Kyle M.; Poulton, Alex J.; Bidle, Kay; Thamatrakoln, Kimberlee; Schieler, Brittany; Giering, Sarah L.; Wells, Seona R.; Tarran, Glen A.; Mayor, Dan; Johnson, Matthew; et al (December 2020, Frontiers in Marine Science)

   Phytoplankton play a central role in the regulation of global carbon and nutrient cycles, forming the basis of the marine food webs. A group of biogeochemically important phytoplankton, the coccolithophores, produce calcium carbonate scales that have been hypothesized to deter or reduce grazing by microzooplankton. Here, a meta-analysis of mesocosm-based experiments demonstrates that calcification of the cosmopolitan coccolithophore, Emiliania huxleyi , fails to deter microzooplankton grazing. The median grazing to growth ratio for E. huxleyi (0.56 ± 0.40) was not significantly different among non-calcified nano- or picoeukaryotes (0.71 ± 0.31 and 0.55 ± 0.34, respectively). Additionally, the environmental concentration of E. huxleyi did not drive preferential grazing of non-calcified groups. These results strongly suggest that the possession of coccoliths does not provide E. huxleyi effective protection from microzooplankton grazing. Such indiscriminate consumption has implications for the dissolution and fate of CaCO 3 in the ocean, and the evolution of coccoliths. 

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3. Stable carbon isotope ratios of pristine carbohydrates preserved within nannofossil calcite

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2024.09.007  

   McClelland, Harry-Luke Oliver; Lee, Renee BY; Pearson, Ann; Rickaby, Rosalind EM (September 2024, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta)

   Catalano, Jeffrey; Passey, Benjamin H (Ed.)

   The geochemical characterization of phytoplankton-derived organic compounds found in marine sediments has been widely used to reconstruct atmospheric pCO2 thoughout the Cenozoic. This is possible owing to a well-established relationship between the carbon isotope ratios of phytoplankton biomass and CO2 concentration in the ambient seawater. An ideal molecular target for such proxy reconstructions would be degradation resistant on geologic timescales and unambiguously associated with known, experimentally tractable, organisms, so that species-specific models can be developed, calibrated, and applied to appropriate material. However, existing organic matter targets do not quite meet these criteria, primarily owing to ambiguity in the source species of recalcitrant compounds in deep time. Here we explore the potential of a novel organic carbon target for isotopic analysis: acidic polysaccharides extracted from the calcite plates (coccoliths) that are produced by all calcifying haptophytes. Carbohydrates are usually rapidly remineralized in sediments, but coccolith-associated polysaccharides (CAPs) are mechanically protected from diagenesis within the coccolith calcite lattice. Coccoliths can be taxonomically separated by size and identified, often to species level, prior to CAP extraction, providing a species-specific record. Coccolith morphology and composition are important additional sources of information, which are then unambiguously associated with the extracted CAPs. We find that carbon isotope ratios of CAPs changed in response to the environmental changes associated with a glacial cycle, which we attribute to temperature-driven changes in average growth rate. Once the underlying biosynthetic processes and the associated isotope effects are better understood, this archive of pristine organic matter has the potential to provide insight into phytoplankton growth rates and atmospheric pCO2 far beyond the Cenozoic, to when the first coccolithophores inhabited the surface ocean over 200 million years ago. 

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4. Physiological and biochemical responses of <i>Emiliania huxleyi</i> to ocean acidification and warming are modulated by UV radiation

   https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-561-2019  

   Tong, Shanying; Hutchins, David A.; Gao, Kunshan (January 2019, Biogeosciences)

   Abstract. Marine phytoplankton such as bloom-forming, calcite-producingcoccolithophores, are naturally exposed to solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR,280–400nm) in the ocean's upper mixed layers. Nevertheless, the effects ofincreasing carbon dioxide (CO₂)-induced ocean acidification and warming have rarelybeen investigated in the presence of UVR. We examined calcification andphotosynthetic carbon fixation performance in the most cosmopolitancoccolithophorid, Emiliania huxleyi, grown under high(1000µatm, HC; pH_T: 7.70) and low (400µatm,LC; pH_T: 8.02) CO₂ levels, at 15^∘C,20^∘C and 24^∘C with or without UVR. The HCtreatment did not affect photosynthetic carbon fixation at 15^∘C,but significantly enhanced it with increasing temperature. Exposure to UVRinhibited photosynthesis, with higher inhibition by UVA (320–395nm) thanUVB (295–320nm), except in the HC and 24^∘C-grown cells, in whichUVB caused more inhibition than UVA. A reduced thickness of the coccolith layerin the HC-grown cells appeared to be responsible for the UV-inducedinhibition, and an increased repair rate of UVA-derived damage in theHC–high-temperature grown cells could be responsible for lowered UVA-induced inhibition.While calcification was reduced with elevated CO₂ concentration,exposure to UVB or UVA affected the process differentially, with the formerinhibiting it and the latter enhancing it. UVA-induced stimulation of calcification washigher in the HC-grown cells at 15 and 20^∘C, whereas at24^∘C observed enhancement was not significant. The calcificationto photosynthesis ratio (Cal∕Pho ratio) was lower in the HC treatment,and increasing temperature also lowered the value. However, at 20 and24^∘C, exposure to UVR significantly increased the Cal∕Phoratio, especially in HC-grown cells, by up to 100%. This implies thatUVR can counteract the negative effects of the “greenhouse” treatment onthe Cal∕Pho ratio; hence, UVR may be a key stressor when considering theimpacts of future greenhouse conditions on E. huxleyi. 

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5. Post-drainage vegetation, microtopography and organic matter in Arctic drained lake basins

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad2eeb  

   Wolter, Juliane; Jones, Benjamin M; Fuchs, Matthias; Breen, Amy; Bussmann, Ingeborg; Koch, Boris; Lenz, Josefine; Myers-Smith, Isla H; Sachs, Torsten; Strauss, Jens; et al (March 2024, Environmental Research Letters)

   Wetlands in Arctic drained lake basins (DLBs) have a high potential for carbon storage in vegetation and peat as well as for elevated greenhouse gas emissions. However, the evolution of vegetation and organic matter is rarely studied in DLBs, making these abundant wetlands especially uncertain elements of the permafrost carbon budget. We surveyed multiple DLB generations in northern Alaska with the goal to assess vegetation, microtopography, and organic matter in surface sediment and pond water in DLBs and to provide the first high-resolution land cover classification for a DLB system focussing on moisture-related vegetation classes for the Teshekpuk Lake region. We associated sediment properties and methane concentrations along a post-drainage succession gradient with remote sensing-derived land cover classes. Our study distinguished five eco-hydrological classes using statistical clustering of vegetation data, which corresponded to the land cover classes. We identified surface wetness and time since drainage as predictors of vegetation composition. Microtopographic complexity increased after drainage. Organic carbon and nitrogen contents in sediment, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved nitrogen (DN) in ponds were high throughout, indicating high organic matter availability and decomposition. We confirmed wetness as a predictor of sediment methane concentrations. Our findings suggest moderate to high methane concentrations independent of drainage age, with particularly high concentrations beneath submerged patches (up to 200μmol l⁻¹) and in pond water (up to 22μmol l⁻¹). In our DLB system, wet and shallow submerged patches with high methane concentrations occupied 54% of the area, and ponds with high DOC, DN and methane occupied another 11%. In conclusion, we demonstrate that DLB wetlands are highly productive regarding organic matter decomposition and methane production. Machine learning-aided land cover classification using high-resolution multispectral satellite imagery provides a useful tool for future upscaling of sediment properties and methane emission potentials from Arctic DLBs. 

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